A friend gave us an ice cream maker. The first two batches came out more like just flavored ice, at least after they sat in the freezer for a while. Another batch was made with actual lactose-free ice cream, so that might come out better. Does anyone know of some good online ice cream recipes for an ice cream maker (especially ones that can use lactose-free milk as opposed to other dairy products that have lactose)? And I don't mean recipes for flavors like these. [ht: Geek Press]
Hi Jeremy,
Now this is a subject I know alot about. I have over 50 ice cream, frozen yogurt, granites, granita's, sorbet, sherbert (ok I'll stop) recipes. Though I don't think any are lactose-free. Lactose free will definitely affect the consistency. Though I do have a number of recipes with cornstarch in them that would help them set up. Let me know if you want the recipes that are not lactose-free. I'll try to do some research on this also. As a pastry chef you have me intrigued with this. Take care,
Ken
Ken, one of the problems with be cream. It's hard to do ice cream without cream, right? But there's no way to buy lactose-free cream that I'm aware of. But if there's a way to do ice cream (or something similar enough) with just milk, that would be worth trying, and we could use the lactaid milk.
Is the corn starch what keeps it from turning into a block of solid ice, or is it the fat in the cream that does that?
I do have a number of recipes that do not use cream. Milk is very often used. I do have a few that have no dairy at all. I don't know the results of using lactaid milk but I would love to learn how it comes out. I also wonder how those lactaid drops would work. Again, I don't know much about them (or the property differences between lactaid milk and regular milk) but on a culinary/ scientific level I love this experiment (my science teachers dead and alive are doing a double take at that statement.. but I'll qualify it with.. it's FOOD!!!).
The cornstarch definitely helps with the congealing of the ice cream before freezing. The more fat involved the less "crystalization" there would be, especially over a short term period. Like I said I have lots of different recipes which result, ultimately, in different textures (hence all the different "fancy" names). Essentially you have ice creams, icee's and frozen yogurt (oh, Escoffier is turning over in his grave). Anyways, I'll send along the folder I have of ice creams and keep on researching for you. Let me know what works for you and what kinds of experiments you run.. good and bad.
The only difference between lactaid milk and regular is the sugar. The lactose is broken down by the lactase enzyme into simpler sugars. It's sweeter than regular milk, and the sugars are simpler. So it will affect taste. I'm not sure it would affect the consistency and that sort of thing all that much.
That was my understanding (the lactase enzyme breaks down the sugars) I'm just not sure of the results. Again, I am very intrigued and will gladly run experiments with you (all food including ice cream... my collection of recipes is over 4,500... I love a challenge like this). Let me know what I can do to help.
The difference between simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates definitely affects the consistency, quality and "likability" of an ice cream.
If it helps any lactase breaks down lactose into glucose and galactose.